CHARADRIID2E — THE PLOVERS — PODASOCYS. 
173 
and. below, the black markings of tbe head wanting. Young, first plumage : All the feathers of 
the upper parts distinctly bordered with light buff; whole side of head and neck, and entire jugu- 
lum, deep light creamy buff. Doumy Young : Above brownish buff, mottled with black, this form- 
ing a distinct marbling on the crown and occiput, where the ground-color is lighter and clearer 
buff. Lower parts pale buff, immaculate. 
Total length, about 8 inches ; wing, 6.00 ; tail, 2.75 ; culmen, .80-90 ; tarsus, 1.50-1.60 ; 
middle toe, .70. 
There is considerable individual variation in the extent and distinctness of black on the head 
in fully adult birds, some specimens having the whole crown black, while in others this color is 
limited to a crescentic mark just behind the white of the forehead ; in some examples the black 
loral stripe is barely indicated. 
The Rocky Mountain Plover, as Mr. Audubon, not very happily, has designated 
this species, has an extended distribution, from Arizona and Southwestern Texas on 
the south, to our farthest boundaries on the north, and probably beyond, and from 
Eastern Kansas and Nebraska to the grassy plains that border the Pacific itself. 
It is of accidental occurrence in Florida. While in regard to its peculiar specific 
habits, especially during the breeding-season, much remains to be learned, the last 
few years have added greatly to our knowledge of its history. It is not entitled to 
be regarded as a mountain bird, as it confines itself to high and dry level plains, and 
is never to be met with nearer to mountains than their base. 
This bird was first described by Townsend in 1837, and the description of its 
habits, briefly narrated by Nuttall, was quoted by Audubon in 1842. The former 
author regarded the species as closely allied to Wilson’s Plover. He met with it, 
only during one or two days, on the central tablelands of the Rocky Mountains, in 
the plains near the last of the branches of the Platte ; and as it was in the month 
of July, he had no doubt that the bird was breeding in the Subalpine regions. The 
only individual obtained was seen skulking and running through the artemisia bushes 
that so generally clothe those arid and dry wastes. After running some time, it 
would remain perfectly still, as if conscious of the difficulty of distinguishing it from 
the gray soil on which it stood, and with the color of which its own was so nearly 
identical. All that were seen were similar to the specimen obtained, but none could 
be induced, on being flushed, to take wing. He heard from it no note or cry of 
complaint of any kind, and it apparently sought by silence to conceal its young or 
its eggs. 
We are indebted to Hr. .T. G. Cooper (“Am. Nat.” III. p. 183) for our first full and 
accurate account of the habits and distribution of this species. Dr. Cooper mentions 
meeting with it on his route from Los Angeles, Cal., to Fort Mohave. The birds 
were running in scattered flocks over the driest tracts, or wheeling in swift columns 
around the sportsman, their white under parts shining like snowflakes as they 
turned while on the wing, in the manner of their more aquatic cousins of the sea- 
shore. The same writer afterward speaks (“Am. Nat.” III. p. 298) of finding this 
Plover on the plains of the Upper Missouri, in the driest spots and among the villages 
of the prairie-dog. In Montana Dr. Cooper found it rare along the eastern base of 
the Rocky Mountains. There also they were usually met with about the prairie-dog 
villages ; but they apparently did not cross the mountains in as large numbers as they 
do farther south. 
Dr. Cooper also states that this species belongs almost exclusively to the vast 
deserts and plains of the central parts of North America, only visiting the vicinity 
of the sea-coast in the wet season. They are found in the extensive plains near Los 
Angeles after the middle of October, but are not known to be there in the summer. 
